Jade's Learning....

So I've been putting my instructor skills to use and have been working on getting Jade more confident and stronger on her board and now learning some trickery of the flatland and box variety, now stomping 50/50 and boardslides on the box, stoked with how she's progressing and have been helping Luci out with her riding too and more so freestyle riding. Just wish I had someone to push me to try stuff cause sometimes you just need that person you trust to make you do those new tricks you know you can do or go bigger but you got that mental game going on in your head but they help put that to ease!! Ah well I'm sure I'll find someone, there are a lot of sick riders over here!! Here's an edit of Jade doing what she does :).... 

Shredding, woooo

So Luci and Jade the 2 girls I'm out in Tahoe with went on a road trip to Southern California for some sunshine while I chose to stay in Tahoe and snowboard :D annnnd they missed out, as the snow arrived again and it was the best 2 days of pow of the season so I made the right decision to stay but they wouldn't like to hear me say that!! This was then followed by bluebird days and back to it being real warm again so back to the park I went!! Although legs feeling tired I made the most of it since I am blacked out this weekend with it being presidents day so plenty of time to chill and rest up then!!


On Friday I met up with Daina who I had met in New Zealand when she was in Wanaka and rode with her in the afternoon, it was good fun and she was stoked on me teaching her some flat land trickery she was even going for little side hits at the sides of the runs, killing it and pressing the hell out of her board.


We got our photo taken by one of the epic mix photographer dudes with the epic backdrop behind us, here's a couple of the photo's....

Loving Tahoe....

Tahoe is awesome loving it here, learning new stuff and need to start stepping things up, this is an edit made from random footage from early on, going to be doing much more filming from now on!!

ROCKSTAR....

The Rockstar I won arrived yesterday, a whole case of it, 24 cans, I don't drink it so maybe we should have a Rockstar party, haha!!!!

Luci's Birthday....

Luci one of the girls I'm over in Tahoe with for the season celebrated her 23rd birthday on Thursday. The day commenced with the opening of presents, a dinosaur card I made her since her DC Ply snowboard has dinosaurs on it!! Then we went to Red Hut for milkshakes and waffles which were good, although the milkshake disagreed with Jade as you'll see in the edit of the day, yes I filmed the whole day and made Luci a birthday edit, but please excuse the soundtrack which is Britney Spears one of Luci's favourite artists so seemed fitting for such an edit!!


We then headed up to go riding, Luci being in the waffle comma that she wanted to start her day in, haha!! This was also Luci's first day back riding in 5 days as she has had the flu so found it tiring being up there but you gotta go riding on your birthday!! We went and got our Groove on in Groove park and I was helping her to try hit a side on box for the first time which she almost got, when she stops woosing out of it she will get it for sure, haha!!


We then headed home and while Luci got ready for night time partying I made her a cinnabon birthday cake as she loves cinnabon so it seemed the perfect choice, Jade helped by melting the butter for it but wants me to show her how to make it when we make it again since it turned out well and tasted gooood :)

We had friends round at night playing drinking games, lucky I packed a deck of cards with me!! One of our new found friends was turning 21 on the Friday so at midnight he was made to do the American equivalent to a yardy but struggled, haha and was promptly schooled in how to do one by our Ozzie neighbour Jackson who was leaving to head home the next day at 4am!! Here's the birthday edit....

Torstein Poster :D....

Woooo the Torstein Horgmo signed poster arrived today :D Stoked but they could have rolled it up instead of folding it as it arrived a bit crumpled and ripped but I'l frame it when I get home and that will flatten it out!! :)

Stoked....

Was stoked to see a poster I designed for the dryslope advertising their new Winter Mountain School has been blown up huge and is now up at Aberdeen Airport, a friend posted this photo up of it :)....

NORTHSTAR :D....

Finally my dream came true of shredding Northstar, for years I have seen edits from Northstar and the epic park there and in particular Torstein Horgmo killing it. It was RAD, couldn't believe I was actually there, we set off early as is around an hour to the North Lake from South Lake.

There was a comp on so part of the park was closed off for than but lot's of features still set up although we ended up sessioning the 22ft pipe for most of the day, it was sick was getting a lil air out of it too :) The pipe was built especially for Shaun White as he had been training there but stoked it's opened up for anyone to ride. We also headed up again last week which was fun we took a run through the stash but it's not open yet as they need some more snow to open it up!! Was super stoked to come home from Northstar to a message saying I'd won a poster of Torstein Horgmo signed by the man himself, as those who know me know how much I love the guy, haha!!

 

Emerald Bay....

On one of our black out dates in January which we couldn't go up and ride we went to Emerald Bay. It was a real warm bluebird day perfect for taking photo's much to Jade and mines delight, armed with our cameras we went snap happy at this beautiful spot....

 

 

Finding a place to stay!!....

The first week of being out here we did not get the chance to ride much as we had to search for a place to stay, we walked around a lot all day everyday phoning people/ e-mailing, going to the school to use the internet searching craigslist, it was proving difficult because we would only be out here for 3 months and for a lot of places the minimum rental time is 6 months to a year!! Eventually on the Friday we found a rental agents that have like holiday rental housing so we went and saw the place and filled out the forms and were stoked to get it, it can sleep 10 people and there are only 3 of us staying in it so pretty spacious!! I was this place or another lace that looked like a dungeon which Luci was not so stoked on but we all agreed the place we're staying was the best choice. It is close to the bus stops too for getting to Heavenly and Sierra.

Here's some photo's of the house....

 

 

As celebration of finding the place we went to Secret Beach which is a spot by the Lake, Jade and I had taken or cameras and took lot's of photo's, haha :) Here's some of the ones I took....

Here's some awesome shot's taken by Jade....

 

Snoooow Woooo....

 

We finally got some snow as it was looking real brown with no snow with lot's of boulders, rocks and logs but the snow opened up the trees so we got to go adventure in to them but still had to watch out as there would still be bit's to pop up and surprise you!! Here's an edit of us riding some trees, some flat land trickery and Jade killing it, I've been practicing my instructor skills with her helping her progress and she's learning fast, next edit will show Jade hitting a box in the park for the first time!!

New Years....

We arrived in South Lake Tahoe on New Years Eve in the afternoon sometime.... were picked up by friends of Luci and headed to her friend Nicks house where we would crash on his couch until we found a place to stay which was very kind of him. He makes fire sculptures and had some on show to keep people warm and the snow globe festival which had been on for the last 2 days or something with the final day being New Years Eve.

We had no plans and the guys said they could sneak us into the festival so away we went. It was bigger than I expected and was a pretty rad festival with good music playing from the main stage, there were also a couple of other tent's/ stages with other bands/ music playing. A super cool tent had some amazing artwork in it and people doing a joint painting really talented people while elsewhere there were fire twirlers/ dancers all dressed up which was cool to watch. Around 10:30pm we were getting super tired, I know I was finding it hard to stay upright and was swaying around because of how shattered I was, add that to being super cold the 3 of us were ready to head back and sleep although we couldn't leave and not see in the New Year so we persevered and made it while sitting next to a heater we found and drinking a hot drink before heading back out to celebrate the New Year and left swiftly after, haha!!

The next day we picked up our season passes and shredded as of course it is the best way to bring in the New Year :)

Next stop Tahoe....

Photo by Jade Ramaekers

So on the 30th December I left to head to Tahoe for the season staying for the 90 days/ 3 months that your allowed into the states for!! I would be meeting a girl Luci I worked with at Cardrona and her friend Jade at San Francisco airport as they are from New Zealand so were flying in from there.


On arrival I headed to customs and you know how strict they are about entering the country.... well after many questions and showing proof of my return flight I was then made to go to the room that you really don't want to be sent to for more interrogation which seemed to go on forever asking question upon question before finally stamping my passport, pretty scary as you don't know what they are thinking or what they are going to do!! You know I'm just wanting to come here and have fun riding on my snowboard on the epic mountains and parks they have here!!

San Fran Sunrise

Luci and Jade had arrived earlier than me so were waiting at arrivals and we headed off to the hotel we were staying at for the night. This proved much amusement for the hustle and bustle of San Fran with 3 girls lugging around board bags, etc, they'd ask what was in them, it's so tempting to say a body, haha, but I don't think that would go down too well!! We then went out to explore and get some food, but we were all tired from traveling so had an early night as had to be up for 5am the next day to catch a bus then a train then another bus which would take us to South Lake Tahoe.


On first arrival in Tahoe we were not met by the snow we had dreamt and heard so much about but instead we were met by warm weather with no snow to be found other than the man made snow up the mountains, although I have to say they have done an incredible job at Heavenly with the snow making and the terrain they had open was huge with a sick park set up too!! It was also cool to see Tahoe without the snow and get a glimpse of what it would be like in summer as it is a beautiful stunning place!!